


Fall in Love With Falling

by Lit_embers



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Bands, Depression, F/M, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Moving, Romance, School, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-11 03:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7024759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lit_embers/pseuds/Lit_embers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You don't want me to leave Tyler, I know you best. I'm in your mind, after all."</p><p>It was fine until Tyler moved. But now, he's here.<br/>He's always here. </p><p>Josh knows something is wrong with the new kid in school.<br/>Josh wants Tyler to let him in.<br/>Blurryface won't allow that. </p><p>Tyler is his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Abandoned Keyboard

I climbed out of the car and ran over to the driveway, grabbing a basketball and holding in the air above my head. 

“Not fair! I had to wait for everyone else to get out of the car before I could!” My brother Zack complained. He jumped up and tried to grab the ball out of my hands, but I held it higher than he could reach.

“Oh it’s totally fair, first one to the ball gets to shoot first,” I said tauntingly and turned to face the hoop nailed to the side of our house. It was falling pieces and rusting a little, but it was my favourite past time. I aimed and threw the ball in a perfect arc, getting it easily through the ring. 

“Give me that!” Zack said, grabbing it and throwing it carelessly towards the hoop. The balls missed and bounced off the wall, making the metal hoop bounce slightly at the impact. 

“Tsk tsk,” I said grinning and taking a few steps to catch the ball. I effortlessly shot another perfect goal. Zack frowned at me and squinted his eyes. He was never as good as me when it came to basketball. Zach stormed off and I turned to my other brother and my sister, Jay and Madison, who were watching. 

“Show off,” Madison said jokingly as they both walked inside. I spun the ball on my finger for a while before practicing shooting from as far away as I could. I got almost every shot in, even though my mind drifted. We had just come back from church, it was coming close to noon on Sunday morning. My siblings don’t like Church that much, they’d rather be at home or out with friends on a Sunday, but I don’t mind church. It makes sense, why would anybody try and be good if not to get into heaven? Also it’s nice to have someone always believe in you, sometimes my parents can get a little caught up and don’t have enough time to be constantly checking up on four kids. It’s nice always have a guarantee that somebody loves you. 

That’s one aspect of church that I like. The other: Jenna. She’s gorgeous. The Black’s also go to church every Sunday morning, so our families sit together. I try my best to sit next to Jenna, it’s the only time I really get to talk to her. Whenever we all stand up to sing in mass I try to sing loud enough for her to hear, my mom says I have a nice voice. Jenna and I go to the same school, there isn’t exactly a wide range of schools where I live. We don’t talk much though, she has her friends and I have mine. 

I had been absently throwing the ball at the hoop on the wall for the past half hour, slowly moving forward without noticing it. I put down the ball and walked inside, we wore nice clothes to church and the shirt was irritating me. 

“Tyler, honey, could you do me a favour? In the cupboard upstairs could you grab the old vacuum, I spilled some rice and tried to vacuum it up and well,” my mom gestured at the vacuum, now pulled to pieces with the bag full of rice grains. 

“Sure, just don’t break the old one too,” I teased and ran up the stairs to get it. When I opened the cupboard door a small cloud of dust broke free. This was where we kept old, broken things. I had no idea what half of the stuff in there was. I pushed a few heavy boxes of school reports and photos that mom insisted we kept. As I pulled the vacuum out something covered in a plastic sheet fell over and hit my arm.

Grabbing my arm in pain I winced and dropped the vacuum. The covered thing fell on top of the vacuum, trapping it. I sighed and grabbed the plastic sheet, accidentally pulling it off. The sheet was covering an incredibly dusty keyboard. I remembered back a few years ago when mom bought it for me and the others, back when she had her mind set on at least one of us learning an instrument. I had figured that I should mainly focus on basketball, no use wasting my time learning and instrument I would suck at when I could be practicing to get the scholarship I wanted and eventually, hopefully, one day I could be a basketball star. Nobody ended up using the keyboard so it must’ve just been shoved into this cupboard. I pulled out the keyboard and freed the vacuum, picking it up and bringing it down to my mom. 

“Took your time didn’t you?” My mom said, taking the vacuum from me and plugging it in.

“Yeah, remember that keyboard you got us a while back? It fell on me,” I said nonchalantly. 

“Oh dear, are you okay?” my mom fussed, grabbing my arm to take a look. She let go once I assured her five times that I was fine. I left her to clean up the piles of rice that were covering the kitchen floor and went back upstairs to my room. 

I shut the door behind me and flopped onto my bed. I reached over and grabbed the phone which I had left on my bed. Most people had a cell phone nowadays, but my parents decided that even if I was seventeen, I didn’t need my own phone. I dialled up Chris’s number in a matter of two seconds. I had dialled it so many times I thought that it would be impossible to forget. I pressed the phone into my cheek and wandered over to my shelf of trophies while I waited for him to pick up. 

“’Ello,” Chris answered. I was jealous that he had his own phone and could see who was calling, I had to answer with a formal ‘Hello this is Tyler Joseph’ in case someone important was on the phone for my parents. 

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked, knowing full well once I asked that question there was no stopping him, Chris could talk for hours non-stop.

“Well funny you should ask,” he joked. “I just got off the phone with Nick, you remember how he’s been getting guitar lessons? Yeah well we were talking about music and stuff and we were both talking ‘bout that Christian hip hop group that we saw a couple weeks ago. Get this- Nick wants to be in a band now,” Chris rambled on. 

Nick and Chris were my best friends, honestly my life would suck without them. The hip hop group we saw had been stuck in my mind for a while now, how they put their faith into music was amazing, I’d never even thought of music that way. 

“Funny you should mention music, I just found that old keyboard I got from mom a while back,” I said. 

“I forgot you had that, aw yeah, now we all play instruments!” Chris sang out loudly. 

“I don’t play it, I just have it. You don’t play anything either what are you talking about?” I laughed.

“Well, my rhythm is fantastic, bet I could play drums easy!” Chris bragged. I snorted and played along. 

“Well I suppose we better start a band now, shouldn’t we?” I said, chuckling a little. The other end of the line went quiet. 

“Genius!” Chris yelled into the phone and I heard a beep as he hung up. I shook my head and threw the phone down onto my bed, flopping down on it as well. A band huh? Seemed a little far-fetched, I was better off sticking to basketball. But that Christian hip hop group was really stuck in my mind. How hard could it be? Writing and performing. I grabbed a notepad that was beside my bed and searched around for a pen. When I found one I put the tip to the paper and stopped. What could I write songs about? I had no lyrics, I didn’t know how to play a single note on any instrument. I put down the pen and notepad. No this was a stupid idea. But maybe Jenna wouldn’t think so? I had seen her at school sharing earbuds with her friends, listening to music. Maybe she would think it was impressive I was in a band, maybe she’d come to my shows, maybe I would write songs about her… 

I picked up the notepad and pen again, this time I let words flow onto the page. I wrote about Jenna, how beautiful she was and how I wanted her to think of me the same way. Before I knew it I had a chorus and two verses. As I read over them I ended up changing it so much you couldn’t see the words past the scribble. I dropped the book, but then picked it straight back up, turned to a new page and started again. This time I tried writing about my faith, about God. 

I went in circles writing, reading and flipping pages. Eventually I got to writing about feelings. I tried to make everything a metaphor like the songs you hear on the radio. I went down for lunch then back up to write. Before I knew it I was called down for dinner again. I ate quickly then went back to my room to write more. I had pages and pages of scribble and crossed out words. I couldn’t stop writing, everything seemed to come naturally. 

I went to take a break, I laid back on my bed and shut my eyes, the words still floating in front of me, the melodies in my head as I sung them to myself were swirling and twisting, getting mixed together. I fell asleep, dreaming of fantasies where I really could be a musician. 

I woke up in my clothes and ran my hands through my hair. I stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast before school. My whole family was already gathered in the dining room, everyone looked up at me and nobody smiled. 

“What’s going on?” I asked, suspicious of the looks everyone was giving me. Madison had wet cheeks and Zack and Jay both looked mad. 

“Tyler, you were a bit late to wake up, so, I decided to break the news without you. Sorry,” my dad said with a blank expression. I began to panic, what was going on, why was there bad news?

“We’re moving. And we’re not coming back,” Madison said in a shaky voice and left the room. I stared at the doorway she left through. No, no this couldn’t happen. I had friends here, I had a life here. Jenna was here. A lump formed in my dry throat, I tried to swallow it but instead tears filled my eyes. No, why now? No, no, no.


	2. Get the Band Together

I buttoned my shirt slowly. One button, the next, the next, all the way up to my throat. I rested my hand on my neck and tried to swallow, feeling my adam’s apple bob up and down. How was I supposed to go to school now, knowing that it could be the last time I see my friends. How could I get through the day without crying and saying goodbye? I hate goodbyes, I don’t like losing people. 

“Tyler, c’mon. I know we just dropped a bit of a bomb on you and your brothers and sisters, but you have to go to school,” my mom said, putting a soft hand on my cheek. I didn’t say anything, scared it would come out as a croak. 

“How long until we leave?” I asked eventually. 

“This Sunday. Honey I know it’s soon, I’m sorry,” mom whispered into my hair, giving me a kiss on the forehead and walking out of the room. 

Sunday. It was Monday. Only a week to say my goodbyes before we pack into a car and leave. I brushed my hand on the wall. I would never be in this house again. I would never go home again. 

In the car we were all silent, looking out the windows, trying to take in the scene before it was too late. At school people rushed past me. The bell had rung for the first period but I didn’t want to go to class. I had limited time, why should I waste it at school?

“Better hurry up Tyler, wouldn’t wanna be late would you?” 

I turned around and my heart skipped a beat. Jenna was smiling at me. I took a shaky little breath and nodded, smiling. 

“Monday huh? I feel you,” she laughed. The hairs on my neck stood up and I grinned wider. Jenna was talking to me at school. This day was just full of surprises. 

“Oh I almost forgot, I came over to tell you that my mom is hosting a lunch for all the church families this Sunday, you guys are invited obviously,” she said. She was so bubbly and cute I almost didn’t hear her. Wait, Sunday. My face fell and I stopped smiling. 

“Oh, I’m not sure if we could make it on Sunday,” I said.

“Why not?” Jenna asked, now she was frowning too. 

“We’re, we’re moving to Ohio on Sunday,” I said as quickly as I could and gulped again. 

“Wait really? Oh, are you going to be gone long? Coming back?” she tried to smile at me but her sad eyes betrayed the rest of her happy face. I shook my head. 

“Well you’re not leaving until I can say goodbye. Let’s hang out sometime before then, okay?” Jenna put her hand on my shoulder for a few seconds before running off to get to class. 

She wanted to hang out. With me. A smile crept onto my face and I touched my shoulder where her hand had been. 

“Get to class Joseph!” a voice yelled from down the hall. I saw a teacher waving me away. I began walking to class. It was quite the eventful Monday. 

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” 

I stopped walking and looked around. Nobody was near me. I must’ve imagined it. 

At lunch I walked to the table where Nick, Chris and I usually sat. I pulled a sandwich out of my bag and began to eat. I hadn’t said much in class, I was too busy thinking of other things to be able to concentrate on class. Chris slid into a seat next to me. 

“Hey man, how’s Monday treating you?” he said, grabbing my sandwich from my hands, taking a bite and handing it back. Chris almost never brought food to school, he usually was able to get something from anyone he saw. 

“Been pretty boring,” I lied. Nothing wrong with a little white lie. I took a bite of my sandwich, thinking better of myself I swallowed and shifted slightly to face Chris. 

“Jenna talked to me, she wants to hang out sometime this week,” I said, biting my lip a little to keep from smiling. 

“No way. No freaking way. Dude she is a ten, a nine at least,” Chris’ jaw dropped open. “What was the change of heart for her? You guys barely speak outside of church,” he commented. 

“Well she was asking me if our family could go to a lunch thing with all the other church families,” I explained.

“Well you better go to that, I expect all the details of how good a kisser she is,” Chris teased. 

“Who’s a good kisser?” Nick asked as he sat down on the other side of me, joining the conversation. 

“He’s going to see Jenna on Sunday, I reckon our boy’s gonna be slipped a little tongue at this ‘lunch’” Chris winked exaggeratedly. 

“Shut up man, I can’t go anyway,” I said sadly, then realised my mistake. 

“Why not?” both asked at the same time. I didn’t really have a way out of this one, besides, I would have to tell them at some time. 

“I’m moving that day, actually,” I said quietly  
.   
“Really? Nice, where you got a new house at?” Nick asked a bit too casually. 

“Um, Ohio,” 

Nick and Chris looked at me. They stared, realising what I had said. 

“Are you, um, coming back?” Chris said after a while. I shook my head and looked down so I couldn’t see their faces. We ate lunch in almost silence after that. 

We decided to take our minds off me leaving after school, we all went over to Nick’s house to see if we could play some music, stopping by m house to grab the keyboard. I paused before I left the room, maybe I should bring the songs I wrote last night. I hadn’t really finished any of them, they were all works in progress, but still. At the last minute I grabbed one that I hadn’t scribbled on too much. 

Chris was driving, he turned on the radio and began flicking around stations until he found a song he liked. He began belting out the lyrics and tapping his hands on the steering wheel to the beat. I knew this song as well, it was Sugar, We’re Going Down. I sang along as well, quietly at first then with the encouragement of the others I sang louder. To anyone outside of the car it must have looked a little odd, three seventeen year old boys screaming the lyrics to a song on the radio. But it was what I needed, getting my mind off things was my top priority now. 

Once at Nick’s house, Nick grabbed his guitar and led us to his garage. I helped Chris pull out a few metal garbage bins and buckets to create a makeshift drum kit. He banged on each upturned piece with a crusty paintbrush he had found, creating a dull thud and a tinny crash, Chris looked up at me and gave a cheesy smile and a thumbs up. 

I switched on the keyboard and began pressing a few keys, coming up with a little tune and repeating it over and over. Nick picked up on it and plucked a bass line for my tune. It began to sound alright, catchy even, I hummed a little and tapped my foot. Then Chris started banging on his buckets, making a loud, tuneless thud. Nick and I stopped playing and burst out laughing, throwing little screws that were littered around the ground at him. 

“Hey, stop!” Chris yelled, now he was laughing too. We giggled into our hands for the next 3 minutes before finally wiping our eyes and regaining even a shred of composure. 

“Well, I think we have the music down, what about lyrics. Who wants to sing?” Nick finally said. Chris immediately pointed at me. 

“I was listening to you in the car, you’ve got a good voice man!” He urged me. 

“No way, I can’t sing!” I protested, waving them off. 

“We won’t stop until you prove you can’t sing,” Chris replied, crossing his arms. 

There was really no way out of this. Not only could Chris talk for hours, but he could be extremely stubborn. I sang Mary Had a Little Lamb, over exaggerating my voice and changing pitch with every line, making it sound purposely bad. When I was done Nick and Christ began to give me a round of applause as loud as they could with only two people. 

“Bullshit you can’t sing!” Nick said, slapping me on the back. “You are the official new singer of this band, congrats.” 

I laughed it off and put my hands in my pockets, feeling a piece of paper. I pulled it out and looked at it. It had my writing all over it, It was one of my songs I had written. 

“What’s that,” Nick asked, pointing to the paper in my hands. 

“Oh its just some lyrics I was writing last night, it kind of sucks I just brought it anyway,” I mumbled trying to put it back in my pocket. Chris leaped forward and grabbed my arm. 

“No way, I’ve read some stuff you’ve written, I bet it’s good,” He said, coaxing me to give it to him. I rolled my eyes and hesitantly handed it over. 

Nick walked over and read over Chris’ shoulder. I watched their eyes dart back and forth as they read, wringing my hands, wondering what they would think. 

“What’s it called?” Nick asked once he finished reading. 

“Well, I was going to call it Implicit Demand for Proof,” I said quietly. 

“It is about God, by any chance?” Chris queried. 

“Yeah, I was thinking about that hip hop group we saw, remember? I was trying to write about my faith and stuff, but I guess I went in a different direction,” I explained. Writing about nice things just didn’t seem to work. Instead I had wrote about my problems with my religion. It was a little personal, I wasn’t sure if showing them was a good idea. 

“This, is definitely a direction I would want to take this,” Nick finally said after they had both thought. I small rush of relief flowed through me. A smile formed on my lips. 

“How lovely, they like it. Let’s hope God doesn’t hear this one.” 

I looked around suddenly. That sounded a lot like the voice I heard earlier. 

“What’s wrong?” Chris asked, looking confused. 

“Nothing, I just, thought I heard something…” I trailed off. I must be going crazy.


	3. Jenna

I was pacing back and forth in my room, wiping my sweaty palms on my black jeans. I looked over at my calendar on the wall for the tenth time in the past five minutes, it was definitely Wednesday. I looked at my clock and confirmed the time, yes it was 3:45. That meant it was five minutes until ten to four, which was when I would get in the car, drive down to the Black’s house, arrive there at 3:59, right on time to pick up Jenna. 

I was going to pick up Jenna. I began to slowly walk downstairs to the driveway where the car was parked. It was really a small van, we had to get a seven seater to be able to fit all of us. I hardly ever drove the car, we only had the one since dad was driving it one day and got rear-ended. 

I climbed into the driver’s seat at 3:49 and reversed out of the driveway, I had been careful to move my basketballs clear out of the way before getting in the car, I wasn’t exactly the best driver and I didn’t want to take any chances. 

As I drove to Jenna’s house I practiced some of the things I would say, conversation starters and answers to any questions that might follow. We were going to see a movie so we probably wouldn’t talk too much, but I wanted to make a good impression on her, this was my chance. 

As soon as I stopped on the side of the road outside her house, Jenna came running up to car. Her hair was in two braids running down either side of her head, it looked beautiful, she looked beautiful. I reached over and unlocked the door for her. 

“Hi Tyler, ready to go?” she asked, her voice as bubbly as ever. I tried to smile as wide as she was but I knew I could never match her smile. 

“You look,” I paused slightly to lick my lips. “You look great, Jenna,” I managed to get out. I continued to smile but it was almost like there was a little voice in my head telling me I messed up, I could hear it. 

“Well, she probably thinks you’re lame. Well done.” 

“Oh thank you!” Jenna snapped me out of the little trance I was in. I turned back the wheel and began to drive us both down to the cinema. I didn’t want to go to one of those big commercial cinemas, I chose the little one that was a bit further away. My mom had taken me there once and I always liked it much more than the big ones. 

“Alright, so what were we seeing again?” Jenna asked. 

“Oh, it was this one about a boy whose mom died when he was little and he goes missing one day. I’m pretty sure it’s about the dad trying to find his son,” I tried to say it like I hadn’t spent thirty minutes reading about the movie just to ensure it would be good. 

“Sounds good, I’m glad we’re doing this,” she said in a softer voice. “Is this it?” she pointed to an empty dirt carpark. I saw the sign for the cinema next to the road and took the turn. 

We walked in and looked around, there was barely anybody, the movie was starting in three minutes so it wasn’t as though we were early. Maybe it was a bad idea taking Jenna here. 

“We have so much room!” Jenna squealed in a hushed tone, grabbing my hand and pulling me to one of the middle rows and sitting down. My hand was tingling where she touched it, I still couldn’t believe she was even spending time with me. My worries washed away with one look at her face, she actually liking this place. 

I put the popcorn between us and sat down, as soon as I did the lights dimmed until the room was dark. As the opening credits started I saw Jenna flash her pearly white teeth in a grin, did she ever stop smiling? 

The movie turned out to be interesting, funny and exciting, a lot better than I had thought. I kept wondering if I had picked a romance movie like Chris and Nick had been suggesting, saying it would ‘set the mood’, but this seemed like the right choice. 

When the movie was coming to the end I put my hand into the popcorn, trying to reach the last few pieces. After feeling around for a few seconds I figured there was none left and pulled my hand out. As I did so I felt it brush with Jenna’s. We both looked over at each other and I took a sharp breath when she grabbed my hand and laced my fingers with hers. 

Immediately I began to worry my hands would be clammy and sweaty. Or too hot or maybe covered in salt from the popcorn. My heart rate sped up a little as my mind came up with twenty other reasons Jenna would let go of my hand in disgust. Then Jenna began to slowly run her thumb along my hand in a slow motion, up and down. I began to breathe easier, soothed by her movements. I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the movie. 

As the movie ended we let go of each other’s hand and got up to leave. Jenna turned to me and said “Good pick, it was so good I almost want to go and watch it again!” 

We laughed and threw our popcorn container and cups in the bin, once our hands were free Jenna reached for mine again. This time I reached to meet hers and we walked out joined at the wrist. I lead her back to the car, it was late now and the sun had set, the breeze had picked up and I noticed Jenna shiver in the new temperature. 

Once at the car I took off my jacket and offered it to her, that’s what they do in the movies, seems gentlemanly enough. She took it and wrapped it around her shoulders. I started to walk over to the driver’s side of the car but she put her hand on my shoulder to stop me. 

“No let’s stay here a little, nobodies around, it’s nice,” Jenna whispered as she pulled me towards her. We sat back on the hood of the car, at first not saying anything. She laid her head on my shoulder and spoke quietly so I could just hear what she said. 

“I wish I had asked you out earlier, I left it too late and now you’re leaving,” she said in a small voice. 

“I wish the same. I guess I never had the guts,” I confessed to her. She was right, we did leave it too late, who knew the next time we would see each other after I moved. I put my arm around her and we sat in silence for another few minutes. 

“You know what, I don’t want to run out of time to do this,” Jenna announced and stood up. I looked up at her, curious as to what she meant. She grabbed both my hands and pulled me to my feet. We stood for a few seconds, trying to see each other’s faces in the dark. 

Jenna brushed her hand on my cheek and moved it to the back of my neck. Her cold hands made all the hairs on my arms stand up. She brought her other hand to my neck and leaned in. I shut my eyes and for a second felt her breath on my face before I didn’t notice anything anymore.

Jenna was kissing me. And it was feeling incredible. As she slid one hand to my jaw I wrapped mine around her waist. I had spent hours last night worrying about this moment, I had only ever kissed one girl before, but a thirteen year old dare hardly counted. This was a real kiss. My hands fit comfortably in her waist and there was no way I could feel better. 

After the eternity that was the first second, time sped up. Before I knew it Jenna pulled her face from mine and we opened our eyes to meet each other’s gaze. Her lips formed a smile and she pulled me into a hug. 

“I’m going to miss you, I really am,” She whispered. 

“Me too,” I spoke to the top of her head, she was so warm. “Me too.”


End file.
